Pandora's Box
by Fritz Baugh
Summary: A pesky poltergeist was perplexing the Pentagon, and the Powers That Be called in our heroes to put a stop to it.  But what they find is a deeper mystery, one concerning Egon's long absent mentor and some extremely familiar opponents...
1. Chapter 1

**Pandora's Box, Part One**

Adapted by Fritz Baugh   
From a story by Barry Peterson  
GBI Case File GBNY-1991-9/205

* * *

_Legal Stuff that's Boring Unless You're Louis Tully..._

**Ghostbusters** is©1984 Columbia Pictures. **Ghostbusters 2** is ©1989 Columbia Pictures **The Real Ghostbusters** is ©1986 Columbia Pictures Television and DiC Productions. **Extreme Ghostbusters** is ©1997 Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions. The 88MPH comic book is © 2004 Sony and 88MPH Studios. _Ghostbusters: The Return_ is © 2004 Sony and iBooks. No use of characters and images associated with the above is intended for profit, or to challenge the copyrights of the above holders. Characters not appearing in the above copyrighted works are to be considered © Fritz Baugh and/or their respective creators.

* * *

**Writer's Notes**

The first two chapters of this story are adapted from the incomplete serial Now Comics originally slated to begin in RGB Vol.2 #5; with the cancellation of the ongoing series, chapter 1 ("Poltergeist At The Pentagon") was printed in the 1992 Annual, and chapter 2 ("Pandora's Box") was printed in the 1993 Annual. The story was never finished.

I have no knowledge of the ending as Barry Peterson intended it. Chapters 3 and 4, though, will offer my own continuation and conclusion of the story. While this story is intended to fit into the _Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline_ fan fictions, I tried to write the story so that it would stand okay without it.

* * *

**The Pentagon  
Washington, DC   
March, 1991  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Nine  
(Prior To "Terror On the Jersey Turnpike")**

* * *

"Another pile of requisition forms..." Corporal Andrea Albert, Army File Clerk muttered to herself. "How many $600 screwdrivers does Cheney really need?" She knew noone was around to hear it...the Secretary of Defense was notorious for punishing any signs of "disloyalty" (meaning "the smallest questioning of what Dick Cheney wants")...

Which made the giggle all the more unnerving.

She spun around, ready for anything...

But there was nothing there.

"Hansen, is that you again?" she muttered with exasperation.

The giggling just got louder.

_"If you don't like the paperwork, maybe I should do something about it?_ a strange voice teased.

Corporal Albert's paperwork began to fly around the room, apparently of its own volition.

* * *

"...Baghdad is fully cooperating with our forces." Major Grahame dictated to his assistant, Captain Dechnik. "The President's decision to not mount a full-scale invasion appears, at the moment, to be the correct one..."

He stopped talking when one of the chairs in his office suddenly flew at him.

Grahame jumped out of his chair; the attacking item of furniture slammed into the map of Asia behind him, and clattered to the ground.

"Jesus!" Dechnik shouted. "Are you all right, Neil?"

"I'll be better, Suzanne, of someone could tell me what the Hell just happened..."

* * *

"What do you mean, stuff is flying around?" Lt. Peterson asked incredulously, not believing what he was hearing.

All doubts were removed when his phone suddenly picked itself up and started flying around the room.

* * *

General Caputo was trying to calm down his panicking subordinates; it was somewhat comical that he was saying "There's nothing to worry about!" as furniture was flying about the room.

Things got less comical as an alarm started to sound.

"What the devil is going on now, Sergeant?"

Sergeant Brozman looked over the room in a cold sweat. "Someone--or some**thing** has somehow successfully bypassed every safety system in this room! I don't know how, but it's done it..."

Caputo harrumphed, his orderly brain still trying to deny that all of this was happening. "It's only your imagination...mass hysteria..." he said, trying to convince himself as much as anyone.

Brozman shook his head, uncommon panic starting to enter his voice. "General, the only thing between us and the hereafter is this button..." he pointed to the large, red button under a glass cover "THE Button."

Caputo sighed, and accepted the inevitable. "Get me the President--and hurry!!!"

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central  
Varrick and Moore  
New York City **

* * *

Dr. Peter Venkman sighed, lounging against the reception desk, and sorting through the day's mail. "What an incredibly boring week. There's not even any interesting junk mail--it's all bills and coupons toward replacement windows."

Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters' ever-efficient secretary (though she'd recently kept insisting her title should be "Client Administrator") ignored him. She rolled her eyes as Slimer floated nearby, eating a candy bar.

She perked up as the phone started to ring. "Maybe here's your excitement, Doctor Venkman..." She picked up the phone. "Ghostbusters..." she answered.

"Bet it's a prank call." Venkman snapped.

"Please hold for who?" he heard Janine ask. "The President?"

"Did I call that one?" Venkman chuckled.

"Yeah, right..." Janine told her caller. "And I got the Pope holding on the other line..."

Venkman gently took the phone. "Ghostbusters Central, Dr. Peter Venkman speaking...and how may we help you today Your Excellancy?" he said, with mocking brightness. He stiffened at the voice on the phone.

"You'll have to forgive my secretary, Mister President--she's a Democrat from Brooklyn. Very disrespectful."

Janine looked at him. "You're kidding, right? That really is the President?"

"It's either George Bush or Dana Carvey." Venkman replied. He smirked. "It was only a matter of time--have you ever know a politician that didn't have a skeleton or two in his closet?"

* * *

**JFK Airport  
Two Hours Later **

* * *

Undersecretary of Defense Jack Compford thundered at Colonel Sullivan "Well, who would **you** call?!"

Compford was an older man, in his fifties, dressed in a brown suit; his white hair was cut into a buzz. Sullivan was ten years younger, with a pencil mustache and thinning black hair; he was in uniform.

Behind them, Venkman and his three compatriots--Dr. Ray Stantz, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore--were boarding Air Force One, all dressed in their distinctive flight suits. Egon was shouting a last goodbye and waving at Janine (the two had been a steady "item" for a year now) while Venkman was pretending to ignore Slimer's theatrical goodbyes.

"It's just not right!" Sullivan protested. "Sir. That's all I'm saying..." the two men walked up the stairway behind the Ghostbusters. "How can we allow four strangely dressed men without security clearance access to the innermost chambers of the Pentagon."

"I gave you General Badge's report about the ARMOR incident last year, Sullivan..." Compford replied. "And if that isn't enough, need I remind you that Zeddemore is a Vietnam vet with experience in SAC, and Stantz is the brother of an Air Force Captain? We have no reason to doubt they can be trusted..."

"They were also arrested more than once." Sullivan grumbled.

The tall, blond Ghostbuster, the one dressed in the blue flight suit with pink trim and a nametag reading "SPENGLER", cleared his throat as Sullivan and Compford belted for take-off. "Colonel...Sullivan?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I was wondering if you've solved the pneumatic problems in the the third exterior compressor aboard the B-162?"

Sullivan blanched "What?"

"Obviously your engineers have tried diminishing the air pressure by tapping into the hydraulic system?"

Ray Stantz practically jumped out of his seat to chime in. "Of course the resistance offered by the hydraulic system would easily compensate for any recurrances!"

Compford smirked and prodded Sullivan. "They just fixed your most secret experimental aircraft based on rumor and speculation. Like they really need security clearance?"

Sullivan shut up, which brought no small amount of satsifaction to Compford. He stared at the lanky blond Ghostbuster for a few more seconds, then went back to his reading: the outside of the file said "TOP SECRET". But inside was a report that started with one word: "Epimetheus"...

* * *

**Washington, DC  
Three Hours Later **

* * *

The Ghostbusters were on the move pretty much from the second Air Force One hit the ground. They were escorted to the Pentagon in a motorcade.

"I always love running traffic lights..." Venkman smirked. "Where did you two hear about the B-162, anyway?"

"The October issue of _Popular Machinery_, where else?" Ray answered.

"Of course." Venkman rolled his eyes.

* * *

**The Pentagon  
Corridor A3, Level 1 **

* * *

The four Ghostbusters were now in full gear, each wearing a proton pack. Ray had set of ecto-goggles perched on his head.

"You ever make it to the Pentagon before?" Ray asked Winston.

"Couple times, but never this deep in." Winston answered. "I was small potatoes, and you normally have to be a pretty big french fry to make it this far in..."

"My PKE Meter is measuring a disturbance...this way!" Egon reported, studying the readings from his omnipresent accessory. Venkman liked to joke that _"I think he even showers with the thing, but I guess we'd have to ask Janine about that..."_

"You mean the same direction as all the screaming, crashing, and stuff being thrown from?" Winston asked rhetorically.

"Either that or the President's son is holding a party--I hear he's quite the drunk..." Venkman quipped

They made haste to the area the noises were coming from. As they got closer, shouts became more distinctive...

"Help!"

"...Don't know how much longer we can stay one step ahead!"

"And we're out of extra personell!!!"

They arrived to a scene that could only be described as chaos. Miliary and civilian employees running around, trying to either by turns catch or avoid equipment and furniture flying around the room of it's own apprent volition. Venkman took a second to glance approvingly at one civilian--a woman in her twenties with long brown hair in a sleeveless purple dress--before looking at Egon. "Well, it ain't George Junior throwing a kegger, is it?"

"Definitely a Poltergeist..." Egon stated. "The problem we have is that there's no time to move the personnel out of the room. We'd have to calm them first, and that might not be possible..."

"We could always shoot around them..." Venkman quipped

"Peter!" Winston growled.

Ray's eyes lit up, an idea forming. "One thing about Poltergeists: they're very playful."

"Yeah, but I assume you left all your Dopey Dog toys back at home..." Venkman told him.

"Aw, c'mon, you've seen _Doctor Strangelove_..." Ray replied, grinning. "To the War Room!!!"

* * *

**A Few Minutes Later **

* * *

A toy F-16 was hurled into the hallway.

Before it could hit the ground, it stopped, turned, and started flying down the corridor.

"And they said it wouldn't fly..." Ray smirked.

He turned and sprinted back to his waiting companions, jumping over the mass of toy war planes, tanks, soldiers, and jeeps covering the floor.

_I feel like I'm in a Lizardo movie--and I'm Lizardo_ Ray chuckled to himself. "Ready or not, here he comes!!!" he told the others in a loud whisper.

At this point, all four Ghostbusters were in ecto-goggles. The room was completely dark.

"It's a good thing the government makes all these scale models..." Ray said. "How could a playful Poltergeist resist?"

"We could've always used a trail of pizza..." Winston pointed out.

"I thought we were dealing with a Poltergeist, not Slimer..." Venkman retorted.

With the goggles, the creature's entrance became obvious. It walked into the room almost nonchalantly, probably because it didn't think there was the slightest chance it could be seen.

"He did it..." Ray whispered. "He took the bait..."

The Poltergeist was tall, with spindly limbs ending in claws. Its head, though, was incongrously large and solid looking, with a large jaw, human lips, and one giant eye that looked around eagarly. An eye that would've been a very human looking blue eye, save for the orange cornea surrounding it.

"Get ready guys..."

It picked up a plane and a tank, then looked at the other shiny toys. The bigger, neater ones by the desk--the desk behind which the Ghostbusters were hiding...

"Just a few steps more..."

It reached for the toy soldier that Venkman had set to be flipping the bird...

"NOW!!!" Egon barked.

Four proton beams slammed into the purple Poltergeist; as they did, it materialized fully, the power it was using to stay invisible drained by the beams.

"Signed..." Venkman remarked.

The Poltergeist writhed and shouted as Venkman threw a ghost trap.

"...Sealed..." Venkman continued as the entity was sucked into the trap.

* * *

"...Delivered" Venkman finally finished, handing a piece of paper to Colonel Sullivan. Winston stood nearby with the smoking trap. "Your bill, Colonel..." Venkman smirked. "Now if you'll point us to our first-class seats on Air Force one, we'll go away and let you write up some requisitions for $600 can openers or something..."

Sulilvan caughed, and grumbled.

Compford stepped forward. "One moment."

"Something else, Sir?" Ray asked.

"It is my understanding, Doctor Spengler..." he looked at Egon. "That you are familiar with the works and theories of Professor Ian Epimetheus?"

Venkman had known Egon, at that point, for well over seventeen years. He didn't see Egon Spengler look shocked very often--which is why it was all the more noteworthy when it did occur. This was one of those times.

"Professor Epimetheus?" Ray asked, looking almost as shocked. "It couldn't be, could it?"

Venkman sighed. "Okay, I'll bite--share with the class. Who is this Professor Epidural guy and why all the worried and shocked looks? I haven't seen that look on Egon's face since Janine joked about dressing as Lady Godiva for Halloween..."

Egon coughed and cleared his throat. "I'm sure I told you about him before, but you've slept since then." He adjusted his glasses. "Professor Epimetheus was one of my Physics instructors at MIT. He was interested in Dimensional transference theory..."

"You mean like..." Venkman started to say.

Egon gave him a look, to remind him that there were certain inventions of his he didn't want Venkman mentioning with an Army Colonel and a Presidential Administration official standing two feet away from them. "He left MIT not long after I transferred to Columbia. He died a few years after that, not long before we tried to...unsuccessfully translate his theories into a working experiment."

Venkman's eyes went wide. He realized he knew what Egon was talking about. "I just had to ask..."

Egon looked at Compford. "And why are you asking me about Professor Epimetheus?"

"Because, as one of his most notable former students, Doctor Spengler, if there's anyone in the world who might be able to figure out what really happened to him, it's you."

All four Ghostbusters looked at each other.

"Come this way, Doctor, and I'll show you what I mean." Compford said enigmatically, pointing to a door marked "No Admission"

* * *

This story adapts material originally published by Now Comics in 1992 in _The Real Ghostbusters Annual #1_. Original story written by Barry Peterson, pencilled by Niel Grahame, inked by Jim Brozman, lettered by Andrea Albert, colored by Suzanne Dechnik, and edited by Joan Weis.

* * *

#35103-11007w  
085 


	2. Chapter 2

**Pandora's Box, Part Two**

Adapted by Fritz Baugh  
From a story by Barry Peterson  
GBI Case File GBNY-1991-9/205

* * *

** Previously**

Another quiet day at Ghostbusters Central is interrupted by a phone call from the President of the United States. A pesky poltergeist was preplexing the Pentagon, and the Powers That Be called in our heroes to put a stop to it. They do. And then Undersecretary of Defense Jack Compford asked Egon if he was familiar with the work of Professor Ian Epimetheus...

* * *

** Massachussetts Institute of Technology  
Cambridge, Massachussetts  
May 1972**

* * *

"There's no chance we can convince you to stay?"

The gawky fourteen year-old startled at the voice.

"Professor?" the boy finally said. "Er..."

"I mean it. It was quite a shock--Egon Spengler, wonder of the physics department, leaving..."

Egon inhaled. "I keep telling you, and this is the truth, that you should not take it as some sort of insult, Professor..."

The older man smiled warmly. "You won't be my student by any stretch of the definition anymore, Egon. Call me Ian."

"If that is your wish...Ian...you just have to understand. There isn't any more I can learn here...at least not about the things I feel I need to know about."

"And Columbia University can teach you?"

"Yes." Egon said simply. Even now he couldn't bring himself to tell Ian the rest of it...that the field he was interested in, now that he had his Doctorate in Physics, was Paranormology. That Columbia had a highly-regarded paranormal instructor, John Thompson, and he'd already probably missed the enrollment deadline for the Fall 1972 symester. _But if I get in the school this fall, Spring or Fall 1973 is a certainty..._

"You're not even staying for the summer?"

Egon shook his head. "No. I haven't been home since I got here, and my Mother is insistant I spend the summer in Cleveland before I get to Columbia."

"She's probably convinced you'll get mugged and shot or something, and wants to see you one last time..." Ian joked. "It _is_ New York City..."

There was an awkward silence.

"I brought you something." the older man finally said.

Egon didn't even know how to react to that.

"I haven't told too many people this, but one of the main inspirations I had on the dimensional flux equations came when I was a teenager myself. I read a book on Babylonian geomatics..." he handed Egon a book. "The geomatic formulas might look familiar to you, actually, once translated into Arabic characters..."

"I...I don't know what to say..." Egon stammered.

"Thank you, perhaps?" Ian said, a warm grin spreading onto his lined face.

"Thank you, Professor. Er...Ian."

"You're quite welcome." Ian said, shaking Egon's hand. "And New York's not without it's charms--I met a firecracker from Brooklyn and fell madly in love with her...and ended up being married to her for the last forty years..."

Egon looked at the book, and the note scrawled inside.  
_Someday, when you win your Nobel Prize  
I'll be able to say "I knew you back in the day" _

--I. Epimetheus

* * *

** March, 1991  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Nine**

* * *

A team of workers contracted to the United States Pentagon unloaded a massive crate into the garage area of the former Hook and Ladder Number Eight firehouse, the facility now known worldwide as Ghostbusters Central. 

"My Dad always said 'Never come back empty-handed', but this time I think we probably should've passed." Venkman remarked.

Slimer, the resident Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor, Mascot, and Bane of Venkman's Existance, started sniffing nearby. He had to be sure the Ghostbusters hadn't brought back any doughnuts or a pizza or a t-bone steak or some ice cream or...

After the Pentagon movers had left, Winston, Ray, and Egon started to open the crate. The ECTO-1 had been moved to the alleyway in which Janine usually parked her yellow Volkswagen...she'd taken some vacation time since, when they left, the Ghostbusters had no idea how long they'd be out of the city.

"So this gizmo of your old mentor's isn't dangerous or anything is it, Egon?" Winston asked. "All I know is, that Compford and Col. Sullivan were anxious to get rid of it..."

"It was supposedly a prototype interdimensional portal." Egon said. "Which would be consistant with Professor Epimetheus's interest in Bell's theorem and dimensional physics. It was from him I first learned some of the basics of crossdimensional theory...this was the device he was working on when he disappeared."

"And to actually answer your question: Everything has a risk factor, Winston, and just because the Pentagon spent fifteen years without any success in figuring out how it worked doesn't mean that it _can't_."

Slimer started to play with the ghost trap the guys had brought back from Washington.

"I met Epimetheus once..." Ray noted. "He had his retirement party from MIT after my first year, and Egon bummed a ride to Cambridge from me. Nice guy--looked a little like Jon Pertwee from _Doctor Who_. Peter didn't go--he was...busy with other things..."

"Let me guess." Winston rolled his eyes. "More co-eds and 'mystical Tibetan oil'?"

"You say that like it was a bad thing..." Venkman retorted. "Okay, I'll bite--just how dangerous could this thing be, on a scale of one to ten? Three? four?"

Slimer dropped the trap. The entity the Ghostbusters had caught in the Pentagon flew out.

"OH SHIT!!!" Ray, Winston, and Venkman said in unison.

Before they could move much, though, the purple ghost looked around the room. It's one bulbous eye went wide when it spotted the uncrated device.

"Epimetheus?!" it howled "Yikes!!!" At that point it did something the Ghostbusters were hard-pressed to remember ever seeing before: the poltergeist _jumped back into the trap, squealing like a scared schoolgirl_.

"You know, I'm gonna be disappointed if you don't answer in the double digits..." Venkman sighed.

* * *

A couple hours later, the device was completely removed from its transport crate, and standing on the garage floor. It was roughly cylindrical, and the size of a large elevator. A door was at the center.

"Professor Ian Epimetheus retired from MIT after his wife died..." Egon explained. "That was the summer of 1977, as Ray indicated earlier. He sent me some papers in the mail about his discoveries on Babylonian geomatic formulae and the dimensional quantum flux, but he stopped writing shortly after that. According to Compford, he accepted a government consultation contract--and data collected during the Unearth War."

"The Unearth War?" Venkman shook his head. It had been only the previous year the Ghostbusters had first learned about the dimensional rift in Vietnam, and the Advanced Radical Military Occult Railroad. And the government coverup of all concerned with it.

"The last time anyone in the United States Government saw Professor Epimetheus was in the summer of 1978." Egon continued "When they came to his workshop, he was gone and this device was apparently on-line. They deactivated it, and took it to the Pentagon to study."

"And now it's ours..." Winston noted. "I still don't believe they gave it to us to study. It's not the Pentagon's style to let go of something they might be able to use as a weapon someday..."

"Compford was familiar with Epimetheus's file. As a former student of his, I'm in that file." Egon said neutrally. "They assumed that my own interest would compel me to investigate--which is correct--and report back what I find to them."

"And what are the chances of that?" Winston asked.

"It depends on how dangerous it is." Egon replied, just as flatly.

"That should be the last of the power hook-ups..." Ray commented. "At least as far as I can tell. It's on a seperate circuit from all the Containment Unit lines so..."

"So if this thing blows up we don't have to worry about the Containment Unit blowing up too..." Venkman rolled his eyes. He indicated the door. "Can you imagine the door-to-door salesman who'd come out of there?"

"Why are we hooking it up, anyway?" Winston asked. "Shouldn't we just dismantle the thing and be done with it?"

"Yeah!" Venkman agreed. "Make the world a happier, safer place to live and raise the kids."

"There's just one problem with that idea, Winston" Egon shook his head. "We don't know where to start."

"One wrong turn of a screwdriver and KAABLOOWEY!!!" Ray added, spreading his arms for emphasis.

" 'Kaabloowey'? That's a technical term, right?" Venkman asked deadpan.

Egon studied the control panels. "This is part of the problem. Professor Epimetheus left no notes. And only someone who knew him as well as I do would recognize the symbols on this control panel: Babylonian geomatics."

Ray nodded with a slightly wistful tone. "If we'd listened to you back in '79 and used those instead of those Polynesian runes, maybe our experiment wouldn't have failed so spectacularly..."

"The Babylonian geomancers came up with some surprisingly astute observations about the structure of dimensional spacetime that were encoded in their equations." Egon explained. "Certainly lacking the refinement of modern quantum physics, just as Aretus's treatise on 'Spiritual Mist' was a surprisingly presentient model of what we now call psychokinetic energy..."

"Pete's nodding off, Egon. Boil it down to some smaller words." Winston interrupted.

Egon gathered his thougths for a second. "I didn't complete a working dimensional gate until 1984. But all of the rudiments of the theory were in place, and Professor Epimetheus had those rudiments as well. My hypothesis is this: Professor Epimetheus's device was successful in creating a dimensional rift. He was drawn into it and...at worst, destroyed. At best, detained for some unknown reason."

"Don't tell me..." Venkman sighed. "It's up to us to find out which, right?"

* * *

Venkman was enclosed in what could only be described as a bargain basement space suit. "...to do my duty, to Mom and my country..." he was saying sourly.

"You won the draw fair and square, Peter..." Ray chided him.

"Won?" Venkman retorted incredulously.

Ray looked at Egon, who was clad in a similar suit. It was the same suit he'd used to enter the Ecto Containment Unit back on Christmas 1984. "Are you sure you two want to go into the portal alone?" the occultist asked.

"Like I want to go?" Venkman griped.

"We'll be fine, Peter." Egon shook his head. He looked at Ray. "You and Winston will be needed to monitor the control panel. We should arrive at a pre-programmed re-entry postion. You'll also be backup for any unforseen circumstance..."

"Oh yeah." Venkman siezed on that. "A minute ago it was 'we'll be fine' now there's 'unforseen circumstances'..."

"If I could forsee them, they wouldn't be unforseen." Egon answered dryly, turning to the portal. "The theory is extremely sound, however..."

"I think I heard that just before you blew yourself to the Netherworld..." Venkman retorted.

Ray chuckled as he went over to the control panel. Egon had decorated it with Post-It notes that translated the control displays, and thanks to his knowledge of both the Babylonian characters and Epimetheus's methods, had found a way to get the screens to display in English.

They stepped into the device. "Now Ray." Egon called out on his radio.

There was an electrical noise, and the room around them went black...

* * *

It was rougher than Egon's dimensional portals; more like the "Riding a Tilt-W-Whirl 'till you puke" feeling of totally random interdimensional travel; the air started to swirl around them.

Just as their experience when Egon's body had been posessed and his soul shifted to another dimension, live on _20/40/60_, there was a rope connecting the two Ghostbusters back to the portal device--and each other.

Strange trees and entities filled the air. Venkman could see the outline of a building, and there was something else beginning to eat at him (metaphorically). A nagging feeling of familiarity, and not just because he'd travelled dimensions before. _"The tornado..."_ he realized. _"Is it just me, or does this tornado look familiar?"_

Egon had been wrenched from his own thoughts when Venkman said that. He'd been focussing on the building and the strange flora--especially the one that looked vaguely like a giant mushroom--and took note of the phenomenon. _"Hm..."_ He turned on his PKE Meter. Then he looked at one of the indicators in his space suit.

_"It's not a true tornado. There's no barometric pressure differential--it's probably a dimensional phenomenon of some sort, though..."_

_"C'mon, say it..."_

_"It does seem oddly familiar."_"

_"Okay, good. We're getting somewhere. Tornado, no barometric pressure, dimensional phenomenon...I got a bad feeling that you're about to tell me where we've encountered something like that before..."_

Egon paused. _"Once. Five years ago. The readings in the vortex exactly match those of a phenomenon we encountered in Central Park. The vortex sucked us and Ray into it..."_

Venkman inhaled. _"The Flip Side of the Spiritual Divide...Boo York..."_

_"The Peoplebusters."_ Egon added.

_"You think Professor Ep got sucked off to the Flip Side? I mean, we know those ugly wierdos like to zap us protoplasmic entities and stick them in a box. And we know we weren't the first humans they grabbed..."_

_"Professor Epimetheus wasn't in the Peoplebusters', for lack of a better term, 'Protoplasmic Containment Unit', of that we're certain."_ Egon pointed out. _"We can't even be sure the dimensional interface aligns the same way every time the portal is activated...but..what you say is not impossible."_

_"All I know is that I don't want to mess with those creeps again. They're creepier than those 'Anti-Ghostbusters' ever where...let's pull the rip-cord and bail on this one..."_

_"We won't find out anymore about Epimetheus that way..."_ Egon started to protest, when he was stopped by a voice.

A very familiar baritone voice.

"...Tracked the phenomenon this way."

"You said the readings match those from other portals to the meat planes?" an excited--and also very familiar--tenor broke in. "Oh this is gonna be great!!!"

"All I know is I don't want to see that ugly bunch from five years ago...those meatbags gave me the creeps..." a third voice, a very smooth one, joked.

"Do we know if he found the portal, or did we get here first?" the tenor asked.

"I see no sign of him. Either we beat him or he's already gone through. Either way, we keep going..." the deepest voice answered.

_"Uh-oh..."_ Egon muttered. Venkman grabbed him and they hid behind one of the floating rocks.

They peeked around to see their worst fears confirmed.

* * *

Ray drummed his fingers on the console nervously. There was something about this whole thing that was beginning to unnerve him, and he couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was the danger his old friends were putting themselves in. Maybe it was because they were putting themselves in danger and he wasn't with them.

He inhaled when shadowy shapes appeared on the monitor. "I think it's them, Winston!" he cried. "It's dark in there, but I can see something moving..."

"That's good" Winston said. "This gauge you told me to watch is starting to run down...we're not gonna be able to hold the portal open much longer either way!"

"I see...three shapes!" Ray remarked. "I mean, those are definitely Peter and Egon's outlines...I think they found the Professor!"

"Already?" Winston asked incredulously. "They just went in there ten minutes ago!"

"Maybe the temporal flow on the other side is disjointed..." Ray pointed to the doorway. "Let them out, Winston!!!"

When the door opened, it wasn't who they were expecting, to put it mildly.

One indeed looked a lot like Egon Spengler...but with chalk-white skin, and blank empty holes for eye sockets. He had the same blond pompadour, but the squiggly tail was replaced with some sort of leech attached to his neck. His blue and pink flight suit was tattered, with a huge hole on his left stomach exposing a skeletal rib cage.

One indeed liked like Peter Venkman, with the same chalk-white pallor, but with beady eyes and skin pulled so tight around his mouth it looked like a skeleton's jaw...his brown and blue flight suit wasn't as tattered as "Egon's", but still looked well-worn.

For a second, Winston wondered if something horrific had befallen his two friends...but the third new arrival dispelled that first notion. He didn't look a thing like the pictures he'd seen of Professor Epimetheus--he instead bore a distinct resemblance to the man standing only two feet away from him, Ray Stantz. Like the other two, he looked like death warmed over--and was squatter, and more simian than the real Ray, with one overlarge tooth jutting from his lower jaw and his left boot missing to make way for a foot that looked more like a third hand.

"It's not them!!!" Ray cried. "Holy f---!!! It's the Peoplebusters!!!"

It took Winston a second to process what Ray had said. But he didn't have a lot of time to worry about it...

Ray was lunging for a proton pack as the three mockeries looked around.

"Let'em go, Ray!" Winston shouted. "We're losing the portal!!!"

Ray whipped around, saw all the red lights on the control panel, and made a frustrated growl as began furiously working at the instruments. "I know I'm gonna regret this..."

Without a word, or a sound, or the merest apparent acknowledgement of that fact that they weren't alone, the Peoplebusters marched out the front door.

Ray finally saw two shapes nearing the portal. "I sure hope to God it's really them this time..."

Winston nodded. "Get ready to grab that pack again just in case..."

The door opened, and this time it really was Venkman and Egon, space suits and all.

_"The portal! Close the portal!!!"_ Egon barked, not even removing his helmet.

"Shut down!" Ray cried.

"It wouldn't have lasted much longer anyhow..." Winston added

Egon took off his helmet, and slouched to the floor. "We failed. There wasn't a trace of Professor Epimetheus..."

"And it got worse." Venkman added. "You'll never guess who we nearly had a close encounter with in there..."

"The Peoplebusters, maybe?" Ray asked.

"How did you..."

But before Venkman finished his question, Slimer flew into the room, babbling fearfully.

"They popped out right before you did..." Ray replied, holding his temples, a huge headache starting to grip his head. "We thought it was you and the Professor, and..."

"Don't tell me you let them out!" Venkman's voice full of desperation. "Please don't tell me you let them out!!!" 

All four Ghostbusters and Slimer were at the Firehouse door; while there was no sign of the three dopplegangers, there was a trail of slime and destruction in their wake. 

"We thought it was you and Professor Epimetheus!!!" Ray repeated. "It was an honest mistake, Peter."

Venkman slapped him on the head. "The Chicago fire was an honest mistake!!! This...this is a potential f----up of epic proportions" Venkman sighed and slouched. "I'm going back inside the portal where it's safe..."

"No use crying over spilt ectoplasm.." Winston shook his head.

"We'll stop them." Ray rallied. "And that's not a threat, that's a promise..."

* * *

To Be Continued...

* * *

This story adapts material originally published by Now Comics in 1993 in _The Real Ghostbusters 3-D Annual #1_. Original story written by Barry Peterson, pencilled by Niel Grahame, inked by Jim Brozman, lettered by Andrea Albert, and edited by Joan Weis.

Peoplebusters are from the episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402), written by Tony Marino.

A.R.M.O.R. and the Unearth War come from _Real Ghostbusters #25_ by James Van Hise and Niel Grahame.

* * *

#35120-22307f  
088 


	3. Chapter 3

**Pandora's Box, Part Three**

By Fritz Baugh  
Based on a story by Barry Peterson  
GBI Case File GBNY-1991-9/205

* * *

Note:  
This installment begins the new material, continuing the story where Now Comics left it hanging.

* * *

**Previously **

Another quiet day at Ghostbusters Central is interrupted by a phone call from the President of the United States. A pesky poltergeist was preplexing the Pentagon, and the Powers That Be called in our heroes to put a stop to it. They do. And then Undersecretary of Defense Jack Compford asked Egon if he was familiar with the work of Professor Ian Epimetheus.

As Egon had studied under Epimetheus at MIT, the answer was of course "yes". Compford turned over a device that Epimetheus had built before his disappearance in 1978; Egon surmises that it is an experimental dimensional portal. But when he and Venkman enter it, they don't find the aged physicist--instead, the Peoplebusters, weird undead counterparts of Ray, Egon, and Venkman, are set loose in New York City.

* * *

**March, 1991  
Ghostbusters Central **

* * *

"So those were the same 'Peoplebuster' wierdos you guys ran into back in the old days?" Winston asked as he strapped into his proton pack.

"Yeah." Venkman nodded, strapping into his own pack. "While they're here you can ask them why they don't have a Peoplebusters Winston. That always bugged me..."

The phone was ringing loudly as Ray tried to keep up with it. "I know, Mister Mayor, but I swear-it's not us! It's a bunch of evil duplicates from a parallel dimension!"

"Lapinski sounds pissed." Venkman noted. "I'm glad I gave that call to Ray..."

"Never thought we'd miss Lenny, right?" Winston had to nod. "Egon?"

Egon hadn't put on a pack yet, and was still studying the device that started this whole disaster, Professor Ian Epimetheus's dimensional portal. "There's some process still running...it looks like some sort of failsafe program, but I can't figure it out..."

"How bad in it are we?" Ray asked. "I know when we went to the Peoplebuster dimension, our proton packs were pretty much useless..."

"The electrostatic properties of ectoplasm were reversed in that dimension. " Egon explained.

"So wait..." Venkman asked brightly. "So does that mean we got nothing to worry about? That maybe they're just as helpless here as we were there?"

"We can't assume that." Egon shook his head. "Positively charged ectoplasm could have even more deleterious effects than negative..."

"What? They shoot everybody and they all start singing 'Kumbaya?' " Winston asked.

"I don't mean the psychomagnetheric property, I mean..." But Egon's explaination was cut off by the portal starting to emit an alarm tone.

"The portal!!!" Ray shouted. He, Winston, and Venkman's throwers were armed and at the ready. Egon scrambled aside, and hastily donned his pack.

The door of the portal flew open, and a swirl of mist billowed out of it.

A dark shape appeared, and stumbled, grabbing onto the edge of the portal door for support.

Ray gasped. Egon's posture visibly stiffened.

"...good God..." a voice muttered., "...it appears I've made it at last..."

It was a human man; tall, though not as tall as Egon; dressed in a dark trenchcoat, with a burgundy jacket and a floppy bow tie showing from underneath it. When he looked up at them, it was with a gracefully aged face topped by snowy white hair. His eyes looked around, not appearing to comprehend what he was seeing...

...Until they rolled back into his head, and his body tumbled to the floor.

"Is that..." Winston asked, as Egon and Ray had already holstered their guns and moved to the now unconscious newcomer.

Ray nodded. "It's him, Winston...Professor Epimetheus..."

* * *

**Elsewhere **

* * *

"Look at this place..." Peter Venkman snarled. "It's so...bright. So clean. What kind of horrible place have we ended up in?"

The narrator will allow a moment to allow the irony of 1991 New York City being called "bright" and "clean" to sink in.

"Isn't it obvious, Peter?" Egon replied. "It's Epimetheus's world...a protoplasmic plane."

"Wow! This is amazing!" Ray cried excitedly, swooping in midair. "We can even fly here, just like the people can back home!"

Egon pulled a device off of his belt, one looking like a skull with a stick for a neck. "The protoplasmic energy emanations are very intriguing...hm..."

"I love that 'hm', Ziggy...it usually means you're up to something evil..." Venkman grinned.

"I need a better vantage point." Egon replied. "Someplace to get a better look at the lay of the land..."

"What do you have in mind?" Ray asked.

* * *

_Barbara...where are you? It's been so long...I miss you so much...I... _

_Where am I? It feels so different... _

_So heavy. _

_By the Ether...gravity? Is that gravity? It's holding me...I'm so used to being able to escape it at whim...but now... _

_Can it really be..._

"He's waking up!" a tenor voice called

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central **

* * *

"He's waking up!" Ray cried out, breaking Egon's concentration.

Egon hadn't been looking at the prone figure stretched out on one of the beds. He was studying the PKE readings...and just simply mulling over all of this.

"I...am I on Earth?" the voice croaked.

"Yes Sir." Ray answered.

He opened his eyes...and looked around the room.

"Peoplebusters!!!" he shouted, and tried to jump out of the bed. He failed, and crashed to the floor.

"We're not the Peoplebusters." Ray told him, as he and Egon helped him back onto the bed. "We're the Ghostbusters...I'm Dr. Ray Stantz, and this is..."

Egon shook his head violently to cut him off. He didn't want to give out too much information yet...he certainly hoped this man was who he looked like, but until he could be absolutely certainly caution was in order. "I think it is far more important we establish who you are."

"Ian Chesterton Epimetheus, formerly of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Professor of Physics and..." his eyes focused on Egon, and grew large. "Egon Spengler!!! You're the real Egon Spengler, not that undead mockery wearing your face! You have no idea how sickening it was the first time I encountered that bastard..."

Egon's features did soften just a bit. "It is good to see you again, Professor."

"That's _Doctor_ Spengler now, by the way..." Ray informed him.

"And you..." Epimetheus pointed. "I recognize you...you were Egon's friend from Columbia, the one who came for my retirement party."

Ray nodded in affirmation.

"It appears I've rather imposed on you all..."

"For a second after you fell out of the portal, I expected you to turn into Tom Baker..." Ray chuckled.

"It's all still so fuzzy..." Epimetheus shook his head. "How long have I been gone?"

"Thirteen years." Egon replied after a pause. "It's March 1991."

Epimetheus fixed him in a wide stare, taking a full thirty seconds to process this. "Please tell me disco is dead..."

* * *

**World Trade Center **

* * *

The ECTO-1 roared down the street. Winston was at the wheel, as he often was, while Venkman was looking at a PKE Meter. Winston had to remark to himself how, without Ray or Egon around, and the situation as grave as it was, Venkman wasn't feigning complete ignorance as to the device's operations the way he usually did. _Normally he'd be joking about "Okay, so which button do I push to make Pac Man come out?" by now..._

Slimer was cowering in the back seat. He had been so freaked out by the three Peoplebusters he insisted on staying near Venkman, even after the annoyed psychologist informed him that he and Winston were trying to _find_ aforementioned Peoplebusters.

"I could just about see Egon's eyes about to fall out when Professor Epimetheus fell out of that machine." Winston had to admit.

"I never met the guy..." Venkman replied. "Well, until today, anyway--I guess I always pictured someone a lot more...I dunno, stuck up and proper looking. More like Egon when I met him--you think he had a broom up his butt when we started Ghostbusters, you should've seen him back in '73..."

Venkman studied the meter for a second. "They definitely came this way..."

Winston looked out to see police cars and several people covered with slime. "I kinda figured..."

When Winston and Venkman got out of the car, their old buddy Inspector Harvey Frump was there, looking pained. He grunted and stomped out his exhausted stogie as they approached.

"And a gracious good morning to you too, Inspector." Venkman said with exaggerated brightness.

"Somebody told me you clowns were outa town..." Frump grumbled. "You bring these slimey fruitcakes with you?"

"Nope. We left all the politicians back in DC, I swear." Venkman answered. "So about the guys who did this..."

"It's him!" one of the slime-covered victims shrieked, pointing at Venkman. "The one who slimed me looked like a zombie version of him!"

"Yep. It was them..." Winston rolled his eyes. "I better handle this..." he told Venkman, moving over to the victim. "He say anything while he was...attacking you, Ma'am? We're trying to find them and stop them, so anything might help."

"He said I was cute for a meatbag..." the woman replied. "He started getting all grabby, then the fat one who looked like a monkey said they had a date with a much bigger lady." The woman shook her head. "Then he shot this awful goo at me, cackled like a loon, and the three of them flew off to the south..."

Winston thanked her, and went back over to where Venkman and Frump were trading evil looks. "Well, he sure acts like you in ways. Maybe his Dana's been out of town for a while too..."

"Hah hah." Venkman replied humorlessly. "They say anything useful?"

"They said they had a date with a 'much bigger lady' and then flew south..."

Venkman mulled this for a few seconds. "Hey...you don't think they mean..."

"If they take it for a walk, I quit." Winston nodded.

* * *

**Staten Island **

* * *

"Mutha Puss Bucket!!!" Peoplebuster Venkman cursed. "What did they do to my precious Baba Yaga?!"

Right before them, in place of the witchlike statue back in Boo York, was some human-looking woman with disgustingly elegant features, a crown, and hoisting a torch and a tablet with an inscription: "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI"

"I bet she's not even naked under that toga..." Venkman snorted derisively.

"That is immaterial to our situation." Peoplebuster Egon interjected. "Why those two towers were standing in the Life Day Center, I'll never understand, but at least this is analagous to home."

"This will be the perfect place to figure out our next move." Peoplebuster Ray grinned, priming his slime pack. "As soon as we cleanse the place of tourists..."

* * *

_"The Statue of Liberty?"_ Ray asked incredulously.

"It's to the south, it's a 'big lady'." Venkman replied. "It fits."

"And if these guys are like you, they might have a history with the place." Winston added. "Maybe Peoplebuster Peter wants to find out if it really is naked under the toga..."

Frump's phone rang. He answered it, listened a few minutes, and then came back to the two Ghostbusters. "That was a call from the Port Authority. Some jokers who looked like, and I quote, 'zombie Ghostbusters', unquote, just drove the tourists out of the Statue of Liberty and took over the place."

_"Don't look so smug, Peter."_ Ray chided.

"He can't even see me!" Venkman protested to Winston

"He knows you." Winston replied.

_"Get to the Statue."_ Egon came on. _"Ray and I will be there in ECTO-2 as soon as I get Professor Epimetheus cared for..."_

"Got it." Winston nodded.

_"Don't engage until we get there unless something looks like it needs immediate intervention. Remember...these beings can think, plot, and react in ways uncomfortably analogous to us. They may be expecting us--we need the advantage of numbers."_

* * *

"I don't need a baby sitter, Egon..." Epimetheus protested. "I am old enough to be your father, remember..."

"Professor, you just returned from the Flip Side." Egon shook his head. "There may be unknown deleterious effects from the transition back to our plane after all of these years. You can barely move and are in no shape to be confronting the Peoplebusters at this time..."

"But I'm the one they're after." Epimetheus said. "When I foolishly used the portal, I ended up in some strange dimension. A dimension filled with...well, what I could only call 'ghosts', remembering some of the things you told me about your studies at Columbia. Time passed, but it was so...strange, disjointed."

"You do look exactly the same as you did in 1977." Ray had to admit. "Just like the people we freed back in 1986..."

"You've been there?" Epimetheus's eyes widened.

"There was an incident five years ago, where Ray, Peter, and I were transported there by a dimensional flux that resembled a tornado." Egon answered. "We met our three...counterparts at that time."

Epimetheus shook his head. "I met them when I attempted to make contact with some scholars at the Boo York Public Library. I accidentally scared a librarian then the two who looked like you and Raymond showed up, then the other one later...I was more than a little unnerved to see one of them looking like some mummified version of my best student..."

Egon and Ray looked at each other, each having the same thought, wondering if Epimetheus's encounter was some strange, Flip Side counterpart of their own fateful encounter at the New York Public Library.

"The next time I met them, they were wearing those coveralls and had those slime throwers. By then I'd started to help humans who'd been thrown into that dimension, in ways that sound similar to what happened to you, get together and help each other." Epimetheus shook his head again. "I had no idea how or if we could even get home...I tried my best to help us have some sort of existance there, but the Peoplebusters didn't want to accept that."

"I was in Los Diablos...thier Los Angeles...when I heard the rumors that somebody had stood up to the Peoplebusters in their own home turf. I even saw some crude drawings of an anti-Peoplebuster symbol...which appears to be based off the one on the arm of your own coveralls."

Egon looked at the no-ghost logo self-consciously. "Our secretary came up with the design. Which reminds me--I need to make that call to your, er, 'babysitter'..."

* * *

**Brooklyn **

* * *

Janine reclined in the bathtub, her face covered with beauty mud and cucumber slices over her eyes. On the radio, turned up loud enough so that she could hear it from the other room, but not loud enough to have the neighbors banging on her walls in frustration, Duran Duran's "Rio" was playing.

Between the relaxing warm water, the creamy bubbles, and the music, she was nearing a sleepy state...

...when the phone rang.

She muttered a curse and sat up, the water sloshing as she reached for the cordless phone sitting on her toilet. The cucumbers dropped to the floor; the top half of her body, save for a few bubbles, was now exposed. "Melnitz, Whaddya want?"

_"Janine?"_

She sat up straighter, her mood brightening considerably. "Egon?"

_"Yes"_

She smirked. "I was just thinking about you..."

_"I need a favor. I know you were taking some time off while we were in Washington, but something's come up."_

_'Something's come up'? And if you were here right now, I bet..._ "I dunno...I was kind of busy..." she teased.

_"I'm sorry, but if at all possible...I need you to drop what you're doing and come right away. You don't even have to dress for work--whatever you're wearing right now would be utterly acceptable"_

She licked her lips. "If it was just you, I might..."

_"Oh?"_

"I'm lounging in the bathtub." She informed him playfully. Today, she would entice him just a tad, when there was too much distance for him to feel any real danger from it.

Silence for a few second. _"Bathtub?"_

Her voice dropped in octave and volume. "You know...naked. Nothing but some lather and a couple of cucumbers...except the cucumbers fell off when I answered the phone..."

A few more seconds of silence. She could practically hear him blushing at the thought.

_"Perhaps some clothing __**would**__ be advisable."_ he finally managed to say.

"I'll be there was quick as I can, Egon." she replied in a more normal voice, made a kissing sound, and hung up the phone.

* * *

Ray was trying not to laugh as, halfway through the call, Egon's face turned bright red, he started sweating, and he stammered something about a "bathtub"

"Egon?" he asked.

Egon tugged at his collar, trying desperately to compose himself. "She'll...be here as soon as she can."

* * *

**The World Trade Center **

* * *

"I don't mind tellin' you clowns, the Mayor ain't too happy about all of this." Frump complained. "Zombies who look like you ain't good for the city OR you mugs. If I wasn't standing right here looking at you when that call about the Statue of Liberty came in..."

"We thank you for your generous, supportive nature, Harv." Venkman replied smoothly.

Winston grabbed his arm. "I gotta get you outa here before Frump arrests us anyway..."

They got about three steps before they were stopped by a blood-curdling shriek.

They turned to see the woman that Peoplebuster Venkman had slimed...and several more, starting to writhe in agony.

"What the f?" Venkman and Frump said in disconcerting unison.

The slimed woman started to bulge and grow, at the same time her skin seemed to melt away. Behind her, several other victims started to undergo similar transformations.

"Aw, shit..." Frump muttered, drawing his service revolver.

"They're still people!" Winston shouted, pushing Frump's gun down.

"The Peoplebusters slime didn't do that back in their dimension!" Venkman cried, clearly confused.

"Any bright ideas, Mister Ghostbuster?" Frump asked snidely.

"Run!!!" Venkman offered. The two Ghostbusters and one police inspector took off at a run.

* * *

Slimer cowered in the back of the ECTO-1, then realized he was almost out of Cheesy Poofs. He whimpered and settled into the back seat. He started to wonder if the upholstery would taste very good.

He heard a shout, and peeked up. Venkman, Winston, and that fat policeman he'd seen before were running toward the car.

"This is not f---ing fair!" Venkman whined. "Zombies are supposed to shamble along like folks at a Florida retirement home, not sprint along like they're trying out for the '92 Olympics!"

Frump panted heavily, clearly not used to running like that any more.

"I guess the Peoplebusters have different zombie movies back where they come from..." Winston retorted.

Slimer screamed in horror as a half-dozen zombies ran at them like the ECTO-1 was a sale at Bloomingdales. The Ghostbusters and Frump were moving closer, but not close enough.

"Human beings or not, if we don't do something we're goners!" Frump snarled

"I'm too young to have my brains eaten!" Venkman cried.

"Yeah. If they knew what a light snack that was, they'd stop chasing us..." Winston couldn't help but quip back.

The first zombie to mutate--the woman who'd been slimed by Peoplebuster Venkman--jumped and tackled Venkman. "You did this to me!!!" she hissed. "Now you will pay!!!"

"Could I ask for a blood test first?" Venkman gulped.

Winston drew his thrower, but he was grabbed by two other zombies. He couldn't draw a good bead because the she-zombie kept Venkman between Winston and herself. "Peter!" Winston cried.

Slimer heard this and looked up from underneath the seat. "Pee-tah?"

When he peeked out the window, the scene was grim. Winston and Frump being manhandled by zombies. And Venkman being choked by the biggest, angriest zombie of them all.

Some distorted accounts to the contrary, bravery is not one of Slimer's more pronounced attributes. But one that _is_ pronounced is his almost obsessive devotion to Peter Venkman.

The zombie reared back to strike, and probably rip several of Peter Venkman's more notable organs out of his body...

Slimer screamed Venkman's name, and smashed into the zombie full speed, hitting her with a wet, loud thud, sending green slime flying everywhere.

It was more from shock and surprise, but the zombie recoiled and dropped Venkman--which was what the little green ghost had intended.

"Slimer?" Venkman sputtered, not totally believing it.

He believed it even less when the zombie staggered back again. "What?" she said, then started to shriek as if in agony...

As Venkman watched, Slimer grabbing him for dear life, the zombie started to shrink...the deformities and discolorations faded...and when she fell to the ground, she looked human once more.

"Peter!" Winston cried, currently in hand-to-hand combat with two of the zombies.

"Slimer!" Venkman barked. "Slime all the rest of the zombies!"

Slimer babbled confusedly.

"Just do it!!!" Venkman pleaded. "I'll buy you your own chocolate cake!"

Nothing else needed to be said. Slimer tore into action, bobbing and weaving, and within a minute all the rest of the zombies (and, er, Winston and Frump) were soaked with his sticky green slime.

Just as had Venkman's attacker, the other zombies howled, writhed, and crashed to the ground, human once more.

"Gross!!!" Frump complained, wiping the slime off of himself.

"I'm getting too old for this stuff..." Venkman panted.

"Just how old are you, anyway?" Frump rolled his eyes.

"Twenty-nine." Venkman replied brightly.

"With about six years practice." Winston added.

Slimer was already looking around Venkman, like he expected the promised chocolate cake to just materialize right then and there.

The former zombie who attacked Venkman came to first. "What...what happened?"

"You don't remember?" Venkman asked. The woman shook her head.

"Probably better that way..." Venkman shook his head.

Frump dumped slime out of his hat. "Just what the f--- _did_ happen?"

"Whatever that Flip Side slime did to them, the normal slime--and I use that as an extremely relative term in this case--seemed to cancel it out or something." Venkman mused.

"Careful." Winston quipped. "If Egon heard you talk like that, he'd think you pay attention to him or something..."

Venkman looked horrified. "It's only a dumb guess! Wait until we tell Egon what happened--then you'll get a good explaination with all sorts of fancy words and everything!"

Winston glanced south again. "And we better let him know _fast_...because there's probably more at the Statue of Liberty..."

Venkman and Slimer both audibly gulped.

* * *

To Be Concluded...

* * *

Based off the incomplete original story written by Barry Peterson, pencilled by Niel Grahame, inked by Jim Brozman, lettered by Andrea Albert, colored by Suzanne Dechnik, and edited by Joan Weis.

Peoplebusters are from the episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402), written by Tony Marino.

Ian Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson, developed by Fritz Baugh

* * *

#365-52607y  
092 


	4. Chapter 4

**Pandora's Box, Part Four**

By Fritz Baugh  
Based on a story by Barry Peterson  
GBI Case File GBNY-1991-9/205

* * *

**Previously **

Another quiet day at Ghostbusters Central is interrupted by a phone call from the President of the United States. A pesky poltergeist was preplexing the Pentagon, and the Powers That Be called in our heroes to put a stop to it. They do. And then Undersecretary of Defense Jack Compford asked Egon if he was familiar with the work of Professor Ian Epimetheus.

As Egon had studied under Epimetheus at MIT, the answer was of course "yes". Compford turned over a device that Epimetheus had built before his disappearance in 1978; Egon surmises that it is an experimental dimensional portal. But when he and Venkman enter it, they don't find the aged physicist--instead, the Peoplebusters, weird undead counterparts of Ray, Egon, and Venkman, are set loose in New York City.

Just after the Peoplebusters flee Ghostbusters Central, the portal opens again, this time expelling none other than Epimetheus himself. As Egon and Ray attempt to find out more about his ordeal, Venkman and Winston follow the trail of destruction and slime to the World Trade Center, where some of the slime victims become monsters until Slimer's slime counteracts the strange effect.

The Peoplebusters, meanwhile, have set up shop at the Statue of Liberty.

* * *

**March, 1991 **

* * *

Egon Spengler looked at the falling twilight. It gave him some comfort. "The night is coming..."

"Good" Peter Venkman said next to him. "All this daylight was beginning to give me the willies."

Ray Stantz picked at his big toe, the one that didn't have a boot over it and looked more like a thumb. "Stay on your guard, though, Peter. Those..." he grimaced as he said the word "Ghostbusters are still out there. They have the advantage of turf and numbers..."

"Winston _is_ gonna be pissed that he missed this for a second time..." Venkman guffawed.

"Remember that these meatbags appear to resemble us in appearance and thought process." Egon pointed out. "They will presumably have a similar capacity for cunning and..." His hollow eye sockets glanced at Venkman. "...Dumb luck."

"You're just cranky because you miss Janine, Ziggy..." Venkman retorted.

"They may have the advantage of numbers and turf..." Ray grinned broadly. "But we don't care what happens to their fellow meatbags..."

The three Peoplebusters shared a round of evil laughter.

Egon tensed. "I hear something..."

* * *

In the grand scheme of things, it was quite unusual for Egon to be piloting the ECTO-2, the Ghostbusters' oft-modified (and truth to tell, destroyed more than once) mini-helicopter. It was even more unusual for it's normal pilot, Ray Stantz, to be sitting in the back seat.

_"ECTO-2, ECTO-1, do you read, over?"_

"We hear you, Winston." Egon replied.

_"Please tell me you're getting close."_ Venkman's voice came over the radio. _"I'm not sure who I want to throttle more, Frump or Slimer"_

"ETA is five minutes four seconds." Egon smirked. "Approximately."

_"I __**will**__ be timing you on that, you know."_ Venkman replied.

The Statue of Liberty, site of one particular instance of Ghostbusters history, began to dominate more and more of their field of vision

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central **

* * *

Ian Epimetheus finally stood up, for the first time not feeling exhausted.

For thirteen years he'd lived in the hellish fractured parallel universe his old student and his friends had labelled "The Flip Side". Over there, Epimetheus had many of the same powers that ectoplasmic entities had in our plane of existance--including a relationship with gravity that was essentially optional.

Now, at last, his body was adjusting to having the relationship becoming a mandatory one again.

He wasn't alone in the room, he realized. A young woman, maybe thirtyish, was standing there wearing a sweat shirt and pants with a towel wrapped around her head.

"My babysitter I take it?" Ian asked.

"I prefer the term Client Administrator." the woman responded, with a deep Brooklyn accent. Ian found himself feeling flustered for a few seconds...

"You must be the person Egon called..."

"He's the only man in the world I'd get out of a frickin' bubble bath for." she replied.

Epimetheus smirked. "You have good taste. I was Egon's physics instructor back at MIT--Professor Ian Chesterton Epimetheus." he extended his hand.

She seemed to light up, but perhaps become a little nervous at the same time. "Janine Melnitz. I've worked here for the last eight years..."

She probably had the firmest handshake of any woman he'd ever met.

"Brooklyn, I take it?" he said impishly.

"Um...yeah?" she replied, not knowing quite what he was getting at.

"I once met a firecracker from Brooklyn. Feisty, blunt, and didn't suffer fools gladly. Barbara Wright was her name at the time." He shook his head. "Then she got married..."

"What happened then?"

"She was still fiesty, blunt, and didn't suffer fools gladly. But then her name was Barbara Epimetheus." He winked at her. "I'd say my old student has done even better than I ever would have dreamed."

He turned and strode off to the stairway down to the garage, where his invention was waiting, leaving Janine standing there looking flabberghasted.

* * *

**Ellis Island **

* * *

"...Slimer jumped them, the bastards turned back to normal." Venkman finished explaining.

Egon was studying a sample of the Peoplebuster slime, Model 2.0 PKE Meter beeping and blinking. "It's just as I thought...this PKE is electrostatically positive."

"Huh?" Frump looked, glassy eyed.

"PKE and ectoplasm normally are electrostatically negative." Ray explained. "It's why we use 'proton' packs--the positive electrostatic charge neutralizes the negative charge of ectoplasm..."

"But the Peoplebusters come from an odd parallel dimension, the 'Flip Side', and one of the major differences in their natural laws is that PKE is positively charged." Egon continued. "It explains a great deal--our proton packs didn't work there because the positive charge only strengthened their PKE."

"But what about the monsters?" Winston asked.

"The people back there had a sort of reaction to the positive ectoplasm..." Ray guessed. "It led to a transformation until Slimer's 'normal' ectoplasm--negative--neutralized the positive, cancelling the transformation."

"Assuming the Peoplebusters have more where that come from, Slimer may prove to be our Ace In The Hole." Egon added.

Venkman shivered. "You have no idea how badly it scares the living shit out of me that the fate of the world may rest with _Slimer_"

"I admit, it's possible the effects of the positive PKE may wear off on their own." Egon mused. "Indeed, given time, the positive PKE will repolarize itself. It's actually what started to happen to us on the Flip Side--we didn't develop 'ghost powers' immediately, but when our own PKE began to repolarize. Professor Epimetheus's PK trace is almost entirely postively charged--though as a native of this plane, it was already starting to repolarize back..."

Venkman yawned loudly. "So you're saying we let them be and everything will be okay?"

Egon looked at him with annoyance. "Of course not."

"Just checking." Venkman grinned.

"The slime may repolarize _eventually_..." Ray agreed, unstrapping some equipment from the ECTO-2. "But those guys can do a hell of a lot of damage in the meantime if we don't stop them." And he smirked at Venkman. "You'll be glad to know that Slimer isn't our _only_ Ace In The Hole, Peter..." With that, he pulled a Slime Blower out of the back of the small helicopter.

Egon was strapping on a proton pack as Ray started to don the Blower. "Inspector Frump, we will need to get access through the police line..."

Frump grumbled. "The Mayor already said to cooperate with you clowns, but I don't have to like it. He ain't too happy about it either--he knows how much trouble you caused for Lenny..."

"Arnie shouldn't be so bitter." Venkman quipped. "Almost fifty percent of us voted for him in the '89 election and everything..."

Winston saw it first, and pulled his thrower. "Incoming!!!"

Venkman, Winston, and Frump well recognized what was starting to head for them: a throng of people affected by the Peoplebuster slime in the same way that the people at the World Trade Center were. Several "zombified" National Parks employees, and one tourist in a loud Hawaiian shirt with ten cameras slung over his shoulder were on the attack!

"The only thing missing is them moaning 'braaaaaaaainsssss...' " Venkman quipped.

"Low dispersion!" Egon shouted.

They knew what Egon meant: use a low power beam. Fire to intimidate, not actually hit, if possible. And hope that, just because the Ghostbusters weren't going to intentionally harm innocent human victims, the zombified innocent human victims didn't know that...

The Parks employees and the tourist dodged Venkman and Winston's first volley of shots, but still moved forward

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that these guys are fast..." Venkman said.

"Let's see them dodge this!!!" Ray shouted, appearing from behind the ECTO-2, now fully clad in the Slime Blower harness.

Ray pulled back the trigger lever, and the nozzle of the Blower started to spin, spraying out a thick, viscous, slightly luminescent pink substance.

The slime stream hit the tourist. He howled in indignation, and fell to the ground, writhing for a few seconds...before being turned back to normal.

"It's working, Egon!" Ray whooped, hosing down the zombified Parks employees. They also fell to the ground, and started to return to human form.

But one zombie evaded Ray's slime stream, and made a beeline for the one Ghostbuster who hadn't attacked them yet--Egon. Egon pulled his thrower quickly, and drew a bead on the zombie.

"Egon! Be careful! Remember it's..." Winston started to shout.

Egon fired, but the beam was different somehow. Redder in color. The zombie was held fast by the beam.

"I got it!!!" Ray cried, sliming the stunned zombie.

The tourist with the cameras picked him self off the ground. "What happened? I was at the top of the statue, and now..."

"How are you doing, Sir?" Frump asked.

"Grooooovy..." the tourist replied, with a goofy grin on his face. "I love you, Man..."

"Crap." Venkman winced. "I forgot that part..."

"I'd recommend somebody find a Jackie Wilson tape and keep it playing until the slime is cleaned off." Ray told Frump. "The postive psychomagnetheric nature and the negative electrostatic nature of the mood slime completely counteracted the positive electrostatic transformation..."

Frump grumphed. "The only part of that I understood was the Jackie Wilson part..."

"Trade me proton packs, Winston." Egon exhaled.

"Okay. Why?"

"This one has been modified to emit a negatively charged ion stream." Egon explained. "By reversing the polarity of the neutron flow this beam should effect the Peoplebusters and their victims similarly to the standard beam against the standard negative electrostatic entities."

"That sounds good." Venkman noted.

"Why me?" Winston asked.

"You're a better shot." Egon answered.

"Should we jimmy up our proton packs too?" Venkman asked.

"No. We may need standard beams. The more diverse our arsenal the better." Egon answered. "Because if I was clever enough to come up with this countermeasure, it's entirely possible my counterpart can come up with a counter-countermeasure."

"I always said one of the scariest things we could ever come up against was an evil duplicate of Egon..." Venkman shuddered.

"Yeah." Winston retorted. "But if these guys are supposed to be opposites of us, why isn't your evil duplicate a good guy?"

Venkman shot Winston a middle finger

* * *

"...After Barbara died in '77, that's when I decided it was finally time..." Epimetheus said, tightening a screw. The panel sparked and beeped at him. He hit it with the screwdriver a few times, a green light appeared, and he made a satisfied grunt.

"I graduated high school in '77..." Janine admitted. Egon'd seen her graduation picture in her 1977 yearbook, so it's not like she could deny it.

"Time flies, doesn't it?" Ian shook his head. "Even after thirteen years of horror, it still seems like it was only yesterday..."

He flipped a few switches, and studied the readings. "How long have you know Egon?"

"Almost eight years." Janine answered. "I was hired here when they opened in 1983...a friend of mine was one of Dr. Venkman's ex-girlfriends, and recommended me."

"And how long before Doctor Spengler bowled you over?" he asked impishly.

She blushed, and looked away. "About six seconds."

He chuckled. "And how long before you got to _him_?"

"Even in hindsight, I can't tell. It was somewhere between six months and six years..."

He grimaced as he regarded a panel on the other side of the portal. He took it off, flipped it over, and put it back into place. He seemed to like that much better.

"My family didn't approve of Barbara at first." Epimetheus finally said. "My father was educated at Oxford. My mother came from some of the best finishing schools in New England. Barbara was a school librarian--'Far beneath your station' my father harrumphed." He looked at her again. "We were married for over forty years. One of the last things my father ever said to me was 'I'm seldom wrong about things--but I was wrong about Barbara'..."

"I...know the feeling." Janine admitted.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me the elevators weren't working?" Venkman griped as they climbed the stairs. "I knew we'd have to climb the statue itself, but the whole way?"

"Because we wanted it to be a surprise." Winston retorted. "We knew you'd take it in stride..."

"I think I'm ready to throw up now. Winston, old buddy, come over here closer to Uncle Petey..."

In addition to the long flight of stairs, Venkman had Slimer gripping his arm. Slimer was looking fearful again, and Ray pulled out another doughnut hole and threw it to him.

"Is anyone else concerned about the fact that they haven't attacked again?" Egon said, glancing up from his PKE Meter.

"I wasn't until you said that." Winston responded.

"I'm too tired to fight anyway..." Venkman whined. "If I tell Dana about today, she won't believe it. 'Yeah, well, it was business as usual--I brought back a dangerous device some guy from the Pentagon gave me, went to a parallel dimension, set loose an evil undead duplicate of myself, got attacked by zombies who could actually make the four minute mile, and walked up the stairs the top of the Statue of Liberty with Slimer holding on for dear unlife the whole way. So how was the L.A. Symphony?' "

"If you can be quiet, Motormouth, we're almost there..." Winston shushed him.

* * *

When the Ghostbusters stormed into the observation deck, they saw exactly what they expected to see: a throng of zombified tourists and Parks officers. And, of course, the three Peoplebusters.

"Well, well...look who's here." Peoplebuster Ray grinned.

Slimer screamed and hid behind Venkman.

"I wish I was in L.A. right now." Venkman deadpanned.

"I'm a little surprised you didn't have us ambushed on the staircase." Egon said, locking eyes with his counterpart--or at least the empty sockets where Peoplebuster Egon's eyes should be.

"And what do you make of that?" the other Egon said.

"That perhaps we're enough alike for you to be curious."

"We are nothin' like those guys, Spengs..." Peoplebuster Venkman protested as he picked his nose. "That stupid-looking guy is nothing like me..."

"Yeah. I only pick my nose when no one's looking." Venkman retorted.

"We do have you out numbered Ghostbusterwise..." Ray pointed out.

"Only if you don't care what happens to your fellow meatbags..." Peoplebuster Ray countered.

"And who's to say we do?" Ray counter-countered.

"We know how strongly you fought to free your fellow meat from the Protoplasmic Containment Unit." Peoplebuster Egon reminded them. "I would say your fellow meat matter to you quite a great deal."

"And what matters to you?" Egon asked his counterpart. "While we freed your captures, our primary goal was to simply escape your plane, and return to our own. Perhaps instead of this pointless battle, we could work together on this: we don't want you here any more than you want to be here."

"Logical point." Peoplebuster Egon admitted. "But there is one other thing: the protoplasmic criminal Epimetheus. We pursued him into a dimensional rift and ended up in this world. He's here too." Peoplebuster Egon drew his slime thrower. "We will not leave this place without him."

"If he is a problem to you, then simply let him stay here." Egon finally answered, through gritted teeth. "He will no longer be a problem. He will stay here, where he belongs."

"Not good enough" the other Egon sneered. "He has been a thorn in our side for years--he's one of the reasons we founded Peoplebusters. You've been a problem to us even absent--accounts got around about you, giving the meatbags a symbol, a rallying cry. Hope. You escaped from us, and inspired other meat with the belief that they could escape us too."

"And it is around Epimetheus that hope has congealed." Peoplebuster Ray continued. "You only escaped us once--he has escaped our justice time after time. There is no place in our world for the living--and when we take him back, beaten and humiliated, and publicly flush him down the PCU on international skelevision, the will of the meatbags who resist us will be broken."

"And here I thought Ray would have an affection for the living." Venkman quipped. "I mean, since our Ray..."

"Shut up, Peter!" Ray hissed.

"Professor Epimetheus is under our protection." Egon said firmly.

"That is most unfortunate." Peoplebuster Egon said just as firmly.

"Attack!!!" Peoplebuster Venkman howled, gesturing for the zombies to begin their assault. As the zombies had been literally foaming at the mouths to do so the entire time, they lept to the attack before the word had even finished being uttered.

"I love LA." Venkman gritted his teeth. "Beaches, girls in bikinis, no zombies..."

"Eat this!!!" Ray shouted, the Slime Blower firing full blast.

The zombies shrank back, the ones hit by the slime falling to the ground, starting to revert to human form.

"Fascinating..." the Peoplebuster Egon mused. "Use of negatively charged ectoplasm to counteract the effect of our positively charged ectoplasm. I admit I'm impressed."

"Oh no you don't!!!" Peoplebuster Ray snarled. "Get back in the game!!!" He fired his Peoplebuster slime tank, making some of the already zombified tourists even larger and more zombified.

Venkman was firing as instructed, to try and intimidate the zombies without hitting them. "I hope you have a good idea for what to do now, Egon!!!"

"I do." But the answer came from the wrong Egon. "Peter!!! Now!!!"

Peoplebuster Venkman swooped around, and broke from between the zombies. He fired his slime blaster, catching Winston in a full stream of slime.

"Oh crap..." Ray breathed. He was too pinned down by zombies to get a good shot to reverse the hit on Winston, yet.

Winston screamed, and transformed into something larger, like an over-muscled version of himself. His skin faded to pure black energy, like a ghost made of pure darkness itself, with only beady white eyes and grinning teeth showing.

"Wow!!!" Peoplebuster Ray exclaimed. "He looks just like the real Winston now!!!"

Peoplebuster Egon grinned. "I believe the interaction of two positive ion streams is, to use a term, 'bad'." He pointed toward the un-transformed Ghostbusters. "Winston, my friend, destroy them!!!"

Winston leered and fired.

Ray jumped for cover, barely dodging the beam.

"Just wait til we get home and tell Winston about this." PB Venkman chuckled. "He sorta got to help us this time after all..."

Peoplebuster Egon's right eyebrow raised up in a familiar gesture. "The beam...there's something different about it...

"Prepare to eat it, Ghostbusters." Winston leered again.

"I don't think so." Egon retorted. Just as Winston fired, his own beam sprang to life.

"OH SHIT!!!" Peoplebusters Ray and Venkman shouted at once.

Egon's yellow beam and Winston's red beam collided...

And in a flash of light, both beams disappeared.

"What the???" Peoplebuster Ray cried.

"Now, Slimer!!!" Venkman shouted, throwing a doughnut hole.

It landed right in the hand of Peoplebuster Venkman. "What in the name of Life Day is this?"

The only answer he got was being tackled by a green, drippy ghost that covered him with its slime as it did.

"A negative charged ion beam!" Peoplebuster Egon realized. "The two energies cancelled each other out!!!"

"He slimed me, Ray!!!" Peoplebuster Venkman howled indignatly.

"Time to cancel _you_ out, with extreme prejudice." Ray said firmly.

Ray fired, dousing Winston with the pink slime.

Venkman shouted to Slimer. "The other two, Slimer, get'em!!!"

Slimer jumped Peoplebuster Egon. Peoplebuster Ray jumped back, dodging Slimer, but falling off--or, to be more accurate, _through_ the observation deck...

...But his shout of horror was cut off when he realized he was floating. "I'm floating, like a meatbag! This is so cool!"

"It means your psychokinetic polarity has adapted to our plane, and become predominantly negative electrostatic." Egon said with just a hint of a gloat. "Which also means you're just another ghost now." With that, Egon stuck his thrower through one of the windoes and fired, catching Peoplebuster Ray in his particle stream. The fat, apelike Peoplebuster writhed and cursed, but could not break out of the beam.

Venkman lined up his shot, and got both his and Egon's counterparts in his beam before the two slimed, confused Peoplebusters could react. "Trap!!!" Venkman shouted.

Ray was still pinned down sliming the last of the zombie attackers. "Slimer! Trap!!!"

Slimer flew over to Venkman, removed the trap from the side of his proton pack, dropped it, sheepishly picked it up, and flew it over to a clear spot of ground.

Egon dragged Peoplebuster Ray to his two comrades. He and Venkman held the threesome fast as Venkman stomped on the foot pedal, opening the trap. "You won't hold us!!! We'll find a way!!! We'll find a waaaaaaayyy..." Peoplebuster Egon shouted as they were sucked into the trap.

Venkman exhaled as he shut down his thrower. "That's what they all say."

Egon looked about ready to collapse, but didn't say anything. He didn't look as relieved as he should be, though.

Winston, meanwhile, was starting to sing "Higher and Higher" from the puddle of pink mood slime he was sitting in the middle of.

"I guess there was a Peoplebuster Winston after all." Ray shrugged. "I guess we just didn't get to meet him last time. Or this time."

"I wonder if he feels as groovy as I do right now..." Winston said semi-deliriously. "I wonder if Kaila's home right now...oh yeah..."

"Why look so glum, Egon?" Venkman asked. "Not every day a guy outsmarts himself in so literal and beneficial a way."

"I wonder..." Egon mused. He shook his head. "Let's get this trap back to headquarters. The sooner this is dealt with, the better."

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central **

* * *

The ECTO-1 pulled into place. Ray had arranged with the police to go back and pick up the ECTO-2 later--right now, they wanted to get the Peoplebusters taken care of. And of course see how Professor Epimetheus was holding up--he was still very weak when Ray and Egon'd left him.

They were met by Epimetheus--looking, they were relieved to see, more like his old self--and Janine, who made sure to give Egon a heartfelt hug when he got out of the car.

"What's that, Janine?" Venkman quipped. "You say you want to go back to your bath, but want to take Egon with you?"

Janine didn't make any verbal response, or even look at him, but did scratch her forhead with her middle finger.

"How are you feeling, Professor?" Egon asked.

"I distinctly remember telling you to call me Ian...' Epimetheus responded. "Quite a lot better. Dimensional transit can take a lot out of one, not to mention getting used to gravity again..."

"Glad to hear it, Ian." Ray laughed. "You'll be glad to know your old friends the Peoplebusters are now safely stuffed in a little box, and about to be flushed into a bigger box."

"And all the tourists are okay, Frump grumbled something that sounded approving, and even Arnie's happy." Venkman added. "He even offered to pay us this time and everything!"

Slimer floated out, finishing the last of the bag of Krazy's burgers they'd picked up for him on the way. He belched loudly, and babbled something approving about the "Mystery Clown Spices"

Winston held up a smoking ghost trap, his face still lit up with ectoplasmically enhanced joy. "And here's the box right here! Maybe we should let the Professor dump it in the Containment Unit himself!"

"I'm not sure..." Epimetheus said, hesitantly.

Suddenly, the trap jumped from Winston's grip, the lights on it starting to blink red.

"Shit!!!" Ray shouted. "Are they breaking out?!"

"Why not..." Egon growled. "We did when they caught us..."

"What are we going to do?!" Janine asked loudly.

Epimetheus grabbed the trap, and ran to the portal device. He flipped a few buttons, and the hum it was making grew louder. The door opened. "When I get inside, Egon, key sequence 313 into the system."

"What...what are you doing?!" Egon asked.

"I'm taking them back where they came from." Epimetheus shook his head.

"Throw the trap in there, and then..." Ray started to suggest

"Egon, I'm going back." Epimetheus said. "Here I'm just another washed-up old man. Barbara's gone. There's nothing keeping me here."

"Prof..Ian..." Egon started to protest.

Epimetheus grabbed Egon's shoulders. "Barbara and I never had children, Egon. It just wasn't in the cards for us. But in you I see someone I very much would have like to have had for a son. And you've done quite well for yourself--you have the finest friends a man could ask for, and a woman who not only loves you, but who is exactly what you need."

Egon was struck speechless.

"In the legends, Epimetheus was the brother of Prometheus. He was the creator of Pandora's Box. And now, I've created my own Pandora's Box, which threatens not one but two worlds." he glanced at the portal. "I have to make this right. I have finally found what I was meant to do--helping the poor people of that bizarre world is as much my calling as hunting ghosts is yours. On the Flip Side, I'm needed, in a way I never will be here. I hope you understand."

The strange thing is, Egon did. "Yes..."

The trap jumped again, more smoke coming out of it. An angry voice much like Egon's came out of it. "You won't hold us!!! I almost have it!!!"

Epimetheus grabbed his old student for a quick embrace, then ran into the portal with the trap. "Sequence 313, Doctor Spengler."

Egon didn't even respond, keying in the numbers as ordered.

The portal door closed, and began to hum and shake.

There was a loud thunk, and the whole portal device visibly lurched.

The control panels lit up with red lights.

Egon stepped away for only a second, to activate his PKE Meter.

"Epimetheus!!!" the voice of Peoplebuster Egon shouted from inside the portal.

"You meatbag scum!!!" Peoplebuster Venkman shouted.

Then the huge, elevator sized portal lurched again. It groaned, and with a noise defying description, the entire device seemed to be sucked into nothingness.

"Like I said earlier..." Venkman shook his head. "There's no way Dana is gonna believe this..."

Janine put her arms around Egon's waist. "I'm so sorry..."

"It was what he wanted." Egon replied.

"I am sure I'm gonna be real depressed when this mood slime wears off." Winston said brightly. "But right now I still feel like having a party!"

"How mad do you think Compford's gonna be?" Ray asked. "Maybe we better save some of the mood slime for him..."

"We tell him most of the truth--that we confirmed Professor Epimetheus is now trapped in an alternate dimension, that the entities that attacked the Statue of Liberty were from that dimension, and that the portal was destroyed when we sent them back where they came from." Egon answered. "If that isn't enough for him, then there's not much else we can do about it."

Egon held up his meter. "I'll have to analyze the data, but I may have gotten a reading on the configuration of the exact dimensional shunt. One way or another, I do not think we have seen the last of Professor Ian Epimetheus."

* * *

Based off the incomplete original story written by Barry Peterson, pencilled by Niel Grahame, inked by Jim Brozman, lettered by Andrea Albert, colored by Suzanne Dechnik, and edited by Joan Weis.

Peoplebusters are from the episode "Flip Side" (RGB-402), written by Tony Marino.

Ian Epimetheus created by Barry Peterson, developed by Fritz Baugh

Thanks to Kingpin for some clarifications about the layout of the Statue of Liberty.

* * *

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